Six Qingdao companies were included in this year's list of the country's top 500 foreign trade companies.

The companies include Hisense (63rd), Haier (155th), Hiking Group (180th), Lidong Chemical (393rd), Qingdao Bohi Agricultural Development Co (459th), and the Dongjiakou ore terminal of Qingdao Port (462nd).

Forty-two other Shandong enterprises made the list as well.

The urban landscape of Qingdao, Shandong province [Photo/VCG]

The list, released by the Statistical Society for Foreign Economic Relations and Trade of China, offers the most authoritative data on the imports and exports of Chinese foreign trade enterprises.

According to statistics from Qingdao customs, in the first eight months of this year, Qingdao's foreign trade was valued at 395.54 billion yuan ($57.98 billion), an increase of 4 percent over the same period last year and accounting for 29.6 percent of all imports and exports in Shandong province.

In the face of a complex and unstable international market, Qingdao has been ramping up efforts to adjust and optimize its foreign trade structure and develop new forms of business to facilitate global trade, said local officials.